- The broomstick is a masterpiece of wizarding craft.

Malfoy, whose face turned blue with anger, only uttered this complete sentence at the end of the day. However, by the next day, during the Slytherin and Gryffindor flying lessons, he had been in a very strange state, his legs had been moving restlessly, and his slightly restless eyes had glanced at the broom on the ground from time to time, and the whole person looked uneasy.

There are some things that you don't usually notice unless you are reminded of them, but once the veil is lifted, it's not so simple to pretend you don't know.

Just because Dartagnan was afraid of being hit in the face by a tennis ball, the cardinal's guard Benajou lost his life, and Monsieur de la Tremuil's mansion lost a few paving stones, and Louis XIII spent forty pistols. The consequences of Malfoy's hesitation to ride the broomstick fell on Neville—the memory ball he had just gotten from his grandmother, to be exact.

This magical object resembles a glass orb that changes color when held tightly to remind the owner if they have forgotten what to do. Neil studied it carefully and commented that it was not as good as sticky notes, which at least didn't require you to remember what it was, but Neville kept it carefully...... In other words, within the scope of his ability, he was very cautious.

He was genuinely afraid of his grandmother.

Back to flying lessons. Neil's extra words made Malfoy a little hesitant to ride a broomstick, and given the relationship between Gryffindor and Slytherin, you can't blame the Gryffindor students for gloating. And for Malfoy, the best way to fight back against these provocations that have touched the bottom line of his self-esteem is undoubtedly to pick one of the Gryffindors who seems to be the weakest and deceitful to teach him a hard lesson.

- It wasn't the first time he'd tried to mischievously take a prank on Neville's personal belongings, but the previous Ulysses bared his razor-like fangs and bit him the back of his hand, stopping him from doing so immorally. It's a pity that because he has to take flying lessons today, Malfoy rarely took off the silver chain...... Or rather, Ulysses gave rare permission for the other to take himself off.

As with other subjects at Hogwarts, flying lessons are handled by a single professor – Lady Rolanda Hodge – and considering that the class is only open to first-year students, her job seems to be the easiest of all teachers, but it only takes one live experience of a flying lesson class to see that this is not the case.

Imagine the scene of stunned young students everywhere who do not listen to commands, do not know what to do, and do not know whether to live or die without permission, taking off without permission on broomsticks, and then falling one after another like flies smoked by insecticides, it is a disaster. No matter how much Madame Hooch went back and forth, she couldn't take care of it, and it would have to be a creature like Argos, the legendary giant with a hundred eyes, not the poor Argus Filch with its name, to keep all of these troublemakers in check...... Wait, Filch might be able to do that too?

In any case, while an enraged Malfoy snatched the Memory Ball from Neville's hand, and then, driven by his rage, successfully put aside his previous concerns about comfort, and rode into the air on his broomstick, condescendingly provocative to the other party, Mrs. Hodge was busy dealing with a fight between students over the tip of one man's broom stabbed into the nostril of another. The enraged Gryffindor students also took advantage of the opportunity of no one to stop them, and one by one they mounted their broomsticks, which were not yet hot, and prepared to fight each other to the death......

……

"I don't know...... Sounds like a mess. ”

Later that day, Neil, who had naturally followed the line of students who had just finished class and had slipped into the Gryffindor dormitory, laughed as if he were trying to cheer up.

"It's not funny at all!" Hermione, grim-faced, punched him in the knee and protested, "They almost got seriously injured!" ”

Not at all. The vast majority of first-year Gryffindors had never been exposed to broomsticks before this class – including driving skills and basic safety knowledge. After taking off in an overly dense formation, they were almost immediately embroiled in a horrific chain of aerial accidents.

Bernice Penn lost control of his broomstick and flew halfway across the courtyard screaming before smashing his head through a window and crashing into an empty classroom on the second floor; Maurice Corbett wisely chose to jump from his broom at the last moment before liftoff, but one of the sleeves of his robe accidentally became entangled, causing him to be dragged about ten feet by a broomstick flying close to the ground, ploughing a deep furrow in the grass; Eloise Meade was not at all involved in the boys' reckless actions, but she neglected to guard her up, and two idiots who collided in the air fell on her head, one of whom seemed to hear a crunch as she felt the impact of the fall......

The massive tragedy, which qualifies even at Hogwarts as a contest for the best of the year, ended in the confinement of all the participants, and Gryffindor had to lose 40 points for it - a figure that even exceeded Malfoy's punishment for Slytherin, but given the number of participants, Mrs. Hooch's decision was not incorrect.

It is worth mentioning that in the midst of the tragedy, there is one person who has benefited a lot.

"You should have seen how he flew!" Ron poured himself a glass of water, drank it all in one gulp, and repeated his favorite passage for the third time, "I mean, that's pretty cool!" He halted Malfoy twenty feet in the air, then swooped down to catch the falling orb...... If I didn't know Harry, I wouldn't believe it was his first time riding a broomstick. ”

"Really? That's remarkable. Neil echoed casually, as he craned his neck and glanced around the common room, "Speaking of which, I don't seem to see Mr. Potter, is he also sent to the confinement cell?" ”

"Nope! Professor McGonagall took him away after class, and I thought he was going to be punished, but it turned out to be ......" Ron shook his head with a glint in his eyes, his face full of irrepressible excitement, "Can you imagine?" The Professor has taken him to Wood, and they plan to invite him to join the Gryffindor team! ”

"Oh, that's a good thing to congratulate." Neil nodded, he didn't hide his lack of interest in flying on a broomstick, but he was sincere enough when congratulating others, "If I'm not mistaken, Captain Riverlint told me yesterday that very few first-year students get this honor...... By the way, who is Wood? ”

"Our dear captain - the Quidditch team. If you get too close to Marcus Flint, he'll find an opportunity to kidnap you and bury you alive in the public bathroom on the second floor, but don't worry, the reverse should be pretty much the same, they just don't like each other anyway, just like all Gryffindors and Slytherins. Fred, who was walking into the dormitory just then, walked over and patted him on the shoulder, "Hey, man, how are the past two days?" ”

"So-so, Mr. Weasley." Neil shook his outstretched hand back, and the smile on his face was slightly more natural than when he had just talked about broomsticks, "So, Mr. Potter is indeed soaring?" ”

Fred spread his hands: "I just came back from the stadium and it's hard to say right now. Professor McGonagall had a high opinion of Harry, and Wood said he should be talented, but you know that sometimes talent isn't enough. Especially for Seekers, they ...... Ah, they're back! ”

As soon as he finished speaking, several more broomstick-carrying men walked through the doorway, including the two central figures of the conversation: Oliver Wood, the tall captain, and Harry, who looked rather pitiful standing beside him. Judging by the expressions on the faces of the two, it seems that Harry's entry into the team is going quite well.

Ron looked at them with envy.

"Hell, I can't believe he did that, if only I could fly...... What about you, Neil? Have you ever ridden a broom before? ”

"Not at all, Mr. Weasley." Neil replied quietly, "Actually, I didn't know it was real until I came to England - I thought that only people who smoked ergot fungus would fantasize about flying on a broomstick." ”

Absent-mindedly Ron, he didn't pay attention to what ergot bacteria were, but the appearance of the word made both of Hermione's eyebrows almost squeeze together.

"Really? You don't have broomsticks there? So what do you do when you usually need to fly? ”

"Oh, there are so many ways." Neil shrugged, "You can use the sword, you can ride the clouds, and you can use the power of spirit beasts...... However, flying on the snowy mountains is quite dangerous, after all, the cold vision is poor, and a figure floating in mid-air is too easy to be used as a target - and by the way, I can't use any of the three methods mentioned above, and it seems that everything has to start from scratch. ”

"That's a shame." Fred grinned and said, "Ravenclaw's flying lesson is tomorrow?" George and I were planning to skip the History of Magic class to see what you were looking for. ”

"You're overrated, Mr. Weasley." He sat with a slight bow, his expression showing no signs of confusion from talking to two "Mr. Weasleys" at the same time, "Neither broomsticks nor broomsticks are too extravagant for me—but if you want a nice ramming angle to fit in your car, I can do that." ”